LAUSANNE, Switzerland - Olympic chief Jacques Rogge warned on Tuesday that sports as a whole was in danger from an estimated $140 billion a year in illegal betting worldwide.

His warning came after the International Olympic Committee (IOC), some sports officials, friendly governments, Interpol and representatives of betting operators held a meeting to find joint ways to tackle the problem.

"I think sports is in danger, it's not about the Olympic Games, it's about sports as a whole," Rogge said after the meeting agreed to set in motion a task force.

Rogge has repeatedly said he fears illegal and irregular betting threatens the credibility of popular spectator sports through match-fixing.

"The turnover invested in illegal betting is $140 billion, that's a huge amount of money," he said, citing figures given during the meeting.

"What we have from Interpol is definitely that illegal betting is on the rise, that we have to absolutely fight that, there is a sense of urgency," the president of the IOC said.

"It's not about the Olympic Games, it's about sports in general, what we heard this morning is a clear signal."

Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble told the meeting that one joint, four-week police swoop in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in 2007 found $700 million in soccer bets on the table and led to nearly 400 arrests.

By 2008 Indonesia joined the operation, 1,300 arrests were made and $1.4 billion in bets were blocked, coinciding with the Euro 2008. During last year's World Cup, $155 million in illegal bets were prevented in an unspecified four-nation operation.

Soccer betting scams reach as deep as fourth division soccer, with the help of organized crime, fuelled by expanding broadband Internet, according to Rogge.

"There have been documented cases of cheating and match fixing in sumo wrestling in Japan, there have been very recently cases very visible in cricket, there have been cases in team sports," he said.

A spot-fixing scandal left three Pakistan cricketers banned and facing criminal charges last month, while persistent corruption fears are troubling tennis after several players were contacted by investigators amid rumors of suspicious betting patterns.

European football governing body UEFA and world body FIFA have set up their own betting monitoring units in recent years.

British Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, Australian counterpart Mark Arbib and French and Swiss ministers took part in the meeting in Geneva.

Those countries already have legislated on betting and are regarded as a core that could draw in more countries to provide police investigations and law enforcement.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 03/03/2011 page22)